Many nonprofits raise a large share of their year’s donations in the last weeks of the year. You don’t need a big team to take part. You need one clear goal, a few well-timed messages and a donate page that works.
Set one goal
Pick a single, concrete goal: “Fund 200 weekend meal bags” works better than “support our year-end appeal”. Put a number on it and show progress if you can.
Get your donate page ready first
- Run the free Website Checkup and fix anything in the Giving section.
- Make sure monthly giving is an option.
- Test a gift from your phone and check the receipt email.
A light schedule
- Early November: tell your list what the goal is and why it matters now.
- GivingTuesday (the Tuesday after US Thanksgiving; December 1 in 2026): send one email in the morning and post on social media. A matching gift from a board member or local business, if you can get one, gives people a reason to act that day.
- Mid December: share one story or photo of the work the gifts will fund.
- December 29 to 31: send a short reminder. In the US, gifts must be made by December 31 to count for that tax year, which makes the last days of the year busy.
Thank people fast
Send a personal thank-you within a couple of days of each gift, and tell everyone the result in January. Donors who hear what their gift did are more likely to give again.
New to email? Start with our guide on starting a nonprofit email newsletter.
See how your site does: run the free Website Checkup. It takes about ten seconds.